Boris Johnson actually said this about women and crying

If you were going to guess who would spring to the defence of a Nobel laureate who seemed to suggest the future of scientific research was gender-segregated labs, who would you say?

That's right! The Tory MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip and sometime mayor of London, Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, has spoken out in defence of Professor Tim Hunt, who quit as honorary professor at University College London after his remarks on female scientists sparked anger online.

Speaking at a conference in South Korea last week, Prof Hunt said: "Let me tell you about my trouble with girls. Three things happen when they are in the lab: you fall in love with them, they fall in love with you and when you criticise them, they cry."

Writing in the Telegraph today, Boris said Prof Hunt was merely "pointing out a natural phenomenon" and his stated opinion was one firmly grounded in science.

He wrote: "Is there any foundation to this casual assertion that women cry more readily than men? Well, yes, there is."

He went on to write:

Men are said to have differently shaped tear ducts, for instance, and can therefore retain the tears for longer before they splash down the cheek. Women are said to have more prolactin, a hormone associated with weeping. I would have thought that all this stuff could be filed as the latest stunning discovery from the University of the Bleeding Obvious.

Right...

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